Man-made Cellulosic Fibres

Man-made cellulosic fibres, or MMC, are one of the world’s most important group of cellulosic fibres, and an important material for us as well. MMC fibres include viscose, lyocell and modal, and are made of dissolved pulp, which today is mainly produced from wood.

MMC fibres are made of dissolved pulp, mainly produced from wood.

Since the world’s forests face huge challenges with forest depletion and deforestation, we have strengthened our sourcing policy on man-made cellulosic fibres. We are currently working with our supply-chain partners to eliminate all sourcing from man-made cellulosic fibre producers that present a high level of risk of sourcing from ancient and endangered forests. Our goal is to by the end of 2025, only have fibres in our products that originates from FSC certified forests, recycled origin or are made of other fibre alternatives such as agricultural residues. This is in addition to the requirement that our man-made cellulosic producers must be verified as low risk by the CanopyStyle audit. You can always read more about our MMC commitment in our Animal Welfare & Material Ethics policy.

The CanopyStyle Initiative

To be able to encourage the viscose industry in a better direction, we are engaged with the environmental not-for-profit organization Canopy together with 160+ other leading brands to eliminate the use of MMC fibres sourced from ancient or endangered forests and other controversial sources. H&M is one of the founding members of the CanopyStyle Leader for Forest Conservation and has been actively working with the CanopyStyle Initiative since 2014. This initiative is working to eliminate sourcing from ancient and endangered forests, as well as closing the loop for textiles, supporting the development of the next generation of MMC fibres made from more innovative sources, such as agricultural residues and recycled textiles.

ForestMapper

H&M group has also contributed to the development of the ForestMapper, a new public interactive tool created by Canopy, supported by more than 100 companies from various sectors and is the only one of its kind to visually represent ancient and endangered forests at a global scale. ForestMapper includes information on numerous ecological values divided into four categories: forests, species, carbon and landscapes. This map is a tool that will support us as a brand as well as our supply chain to use the best available information to identify risk and make more informed purchasing decisions regarding fibre sourcing and forest products.